Perceptions

This weekend was my work conference. After the day before where I suddenly lost my work shoes and had to wear (very) small heels, my foot was not good and so I went to the conference in a very smart looking dress and flat ballerina shoes. I honestly expected nobody to look twice... after all... there are mostly men at these things. I was shocked to find the women didn't mention it and most men said, "Oh, flat shoes today Claire... how is your foot?".

I find it amazing that a persons perception of you means that they probably DON'T look at you too closely. The amount of times I was told that I look fantastic was unreal... however I think if I was 3 dress sizes bigger, I don't think many people would have even noticed! They see that I do all of the training I do, and I think their perception of how I should look is all that they actually see!

While I was at the conference I sloped off to do 30 minutes step, and had taken my rucksack with 6KG of sand in it. I had a good laugh in the gym with the members who were counting down the minutes for me. They seemed quite a good bunch. It wasn't until the awards ceremony that I realised my whole district were aware I'd gone training. Apparently they had been sat watching me from the bar! (No shock there then!). They said they thought I could have left my training alone for just one night!

So, I wore a teeny tiny pair of heels for the awards and gala evening, and I only wore them long enough to walk down to the room and I quickly put them on when I won one of the awards and had to get up on stage. STILL my foot really hurt yesterday and today. It is OK when I'm walking though, so I still did my 1 hour heavy weighted walking, this week with 11KG weight. I picked a trail hilly route and really noticed how much different and more difficult it felt than the road version a fortnight ago. I still managed 4mph however, and I love this sort of training, because I know how much it is going to help me in an ultra.

And speaking of ultras... We have decided to save up. We are going back to Bangalore and we are going this year to redo the ultra. With another years' experience and another 3 ultras behind me, I think I could knock an hour (at least) off my time. Graeme says he wants to do the 75KM race too... I'm not sure he has the dedication to do the training, but I suppose we will see in time. The entry won't open up until August time, so he has plenty of time to prove his worth before then. I'm very excited about it though, and there will be no surprises for the race. I know the route, I know the terrain, I know what hindered me last time, but best of all, I now know a lot of people there. How crazy is that... travel thousands of miles to meet up with people you know.
If you'd have told me I'd be entering the race in 2012 when I crossed the finish line on November 13th 2011, I don't think I'd have quite believed it!